I found the dress below, a Nicole Miller Faille Trumpet Gown that I was considering on EBay in a size 14. According to Nicole Miller sizing, I’m about an 8. Looking at the measurements they included, it’s more of a size 12. Their measurements: bust – 39 1/2″ – waist 32″ – hip 42 1/2″. My measurements: bust 37.5″ – waist 30″ – hips 39″. I also plan to lean out a tad before the wedding, nothing drastic, but I might be a little smaller by the actual date.

So, my savvy bees, are alterations on this dress doable without messing up the cut/proper fit of the gown? I was planning on putting in the lowest bid, which is only $195, but don’t want to waste money as there are other gowns I’m considering.

If you have a good seamstress/seamster she/he should be able to alter this dress and keep its look without any problem.

Depending on who you get to alter it though, it could cost you almost as much as the cost of the dress to get it altered.

I also wanted to add that if you need this gown shortened, I wouldn’t advise it because it would be difficult to shorten it without altering the look of the gown. This gown looks like it is made with solid peices for each section.

as a seamstress myself i can tell you it IS doable, but its major work. its not just a tuck here and there, the whole bodice will need unpicking , cut smaller and re-stitching. i could do it, and WOULD do it for myself, but to pay someone else, would probably be pretty expensive. as for the length of it, all i would do there is make the front the correct length, and leave the back as it is because it already has a small trian so it wouldnt matter about shortening that.

if you think the dress is worth $195 then go for it, but be prepared to spend almost the same amount on alterations…..so is it worth $400? if so , i would say do it.

if you look closely its actually not a solid piece of fabric, it has seams going from the centre of each breast….all the way down. a pretty easy job IMHO, but how much it would cost, who knows?

I believe a good steamstress will be able to pull it off but be fair warned that it may cost you a pretty penny… I remember a few years ago when I got fitted for my bridesmaid dress it was a size 12 but then I went and lost another 30 lbs and it had to be altered to fit a size 4… fortunately the dress was purchased at Bridal Reflections and I think there was a cap on the amount they could charge me for alternations… I cant remember what the cost was but literally that size 12 could have been cut in half to make 2 dresses with all the weight I lost… maybe go try the dress on in a bridal store and speak with their alterations supervisor just to get an idea of how the dress would or could be altered

Thank you so much, bees! There’s also an 8 for sale on ebay for $499, still about half the regular price, which I might just go with instead, but the $195 was just so tempting! I haven’t been able to see the gown fitting properly as I tried it on at Nordstrom, and they only had a 6 available to try on and no clips so I had to just imagine it fitting properly. Here’s a crappy cell phone pic just to share 😉

My face is silly and I’m wearing the wrong underwear so I’m getting muffin-top, but I felt like I could have loved it. Thinking I need to post another one with (actually decent) pics of the other dresses to get some input.

I have always been told generally a dress can be altered up or down 2 sizes. Between that and the fact that your dress has a sweetheart neckline, which will be spaced further apart on a bigger dress thus lose some of its shape when it is altered down, I would say it’s too risky!